Makoto starts her search with the bathrooms.

(Chapter originally by MidnightWisher at writing.com)

It did not take long for Makoto to make her decision. “Starting with the bathroom would probably be best,” she thought aloud. It was the lesser of two evils, and if she were caught, it was far more defensible than being in the boys’ locker room. She could simply try to play it off as a case of her being momentarily unobservant when she headed to the girls’ bathroom. “Now that I’ve settled that, I just have to go to the…” Makoto fell silent as the gears turned in her head and her eyebrows furrowed some. And she soon came to a realization. “I forgot to ask which bathroom he used…”

Makoto quickly slid open the Student Council Room’s door, hoping that her fellow Council member did not get too far away yet. But, when she cast her gaze up and down the hallway, he was nowhere to be seen. A small sigh escaped her lips. This made things a bit more difficult. Instead of only having to check one bathroom, now she needed to check them all. It was a rookie mistake – she should have known better. Internally, she kicked herself some. Absent-mindedly, her thoughts drifted to how her sister Sae would have handled the situation.

Makoto knew her sister would not have been as sympathetic, if at all, to the Council member as she had been. There were many words to describe Sae, serious and strict being the most opportune. But sympathetic did not seem to be one of them in recent years. Her sister always desired for and strove toward success. She did not take mistakes lightly. She also never seemed to make them. She would have remembered to ask the Council member which bathroom he used before dismissing him…

Shaking her head to clear the thoughts away, Makoto knew she did not have time to waste getting caught up on something like that. No, she was on a mission! And she knew just where she would start. Makoto walked swiftly down the hallway and turned left, walking past classrooms until her feet finally led her to the entryway of the bathrooms. On her left was the girls’ bathroom, and on her right the boys’. Neither had a door. Instead, the entryways each wrapped around white-tiled walls so that no one could see in from outside. It assured that whoever was inside received at least some measure of privacy, which was something Makoto ordinarily approved of and supported. However, today, as she stood there listening closely, trying to identify if anyone was inside, she could not help but to consider the feature to be a nuisance.

Makoto stood outside the bathrooms listening closely for any noise coming from within while she also kept a watchful eye down the hallway, making sure there was no one there to catch her in what she was about to do. She didn’t see anyone. Nor did she hear anyone inside the bathroom either. It seemed like the perfect chance to investigate, yet she found herself hesitating, her feet not yet willing to let her break the taboo. She breathed a deep breath and **** herself forward, bracing herself for whatever was about to come. Makoto was well-aware of the stereotype that boys’ bathrooms were often filthy, but she hoped it was wrong. As she rounded the porcelain tiled wall, she was greeted with the sight of a shiny white room with three black-walled stalls and three urinals up against the left wall. On the right side were three sinks on a black counter-top connected to a mirror that reached the ceiling and spanned the length of the counter-top. She released a relieved breath, “I knew they couldn’t be as messy as they say.”

Upon first inspection, Makoto did not see anything lying around in the bathroom, so her next course of action was to check the stalls. Much like the rest of the place, each stall she checked seemed to be clean. In fact, they were too clean. Everything was pristine, without a spot of mess to be seen. “Maybe the janitor came through here recently?” She said, standing in the middle of the room, looking at the sinks. There wasn’t even so much as a drop of water on the counter. “If they did, I imagine that they would turn in anything they found…” Makoto stood there, her mind at work, for a moment. Honestly, she would admit that she wished the documents would have been in the first place she checked. Then, she could have the relief of knowing where they were and been able to return to class, but it seemed her journey had to continue.